This area was settled in 1827 as part of the Lawndale-Crawford area and from there some farms were built in the area and eventually the area became a part of the suburb of Cicero and Cicero Township until the year 1869 when Chicago annexed this area and this Chicago neighborhood started with a population of about 1,500 people.

In the year 1870 Millard and Decker, a real estate firm, subdivided the land and named the area “Lawndale” to attract people to move into this community. After the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 many people came flocking to this neighborhood due to the solid materials the homes were built with.

As the 19th century progressed into the 20th century, more people migrated to this neighborhood because jobs were plentiful in the area such as McCormick Reaper Works in South Lawndale, Western Electric in Cicero and Sears, Roebuck & Company which was right at 925 Homan Avenue in North Lawndale by 1906.

In the 1910s more Russian Jews migrated into this neighborhood as they became the vast majority as they experienced upward mobility. The neighborhood established itself as a thriving middle class Jewish community in the next few decades to follow, as more Jews left the Jewish Ghetto in favor of this safer and less rundown neighborhood.

In the 1930s, this neighborhood now had an overwhelming majority Jewish population. Many Jewish landowners purchased property and rented their units out turning this community into a rented property neighborhood for Jewish middle classes. In the midst of this shift in renting of property it caused the community to begin losing interest in improvement of the neighborhood, renovations, and making North Lawndale a permanent home. By the late 1940s, about 25% of this neighborhood packed up and left the area. It was easy to do because those that left were renters and not rooted to the neighborhood.

In the year 1948 the U.S. Supreme Court declared restrictive covenants as unconstitutional and were made illegal. North Lawndale was a community that had mixed opinions about African Americans living in the community. Some did not want black in the neighborhood at all while others were willing to have blacks move in. The most outspoken of groups in favor of blacks moving in was the Jewish People’s Institute, but most of the neighborhood was not in favor and wanted to enforce covenants even if they were illegal at this point.

Once the covenants were lifted African Americans wanted to look for an escape from the deteriorating Bronzeville section of the south side and wanted a better life in this white community that had better schools and better looking homes, it was a dream come true for them. At the same time some of the Jewish families realized they now had experienced upward mobility and could move to the farther north side neighborhoods such as West Ridge or Forest Glen, or perhaps the suburbs like Evanston or Skokie. As a result of the lift on covenants and this cluster of Jewish migration out of the neighborhood, black families began to move in, in a large cluster in the late 1940s, however, they were not allowed to purchase property, instead they could only rent.

Many people in this mostly white Jewish community did not welcome the black families with open arms; instead they despised them and wanted them gone. This hate led to groups of Jewish youths roaming the neighborhood bullying black youths. In the late 40s the first groups of blacks to fight back were the Imperial Chaplains and the 14th Street Clovers as they migrated from the Jew Town section of the Near West Side.

In the early 1950s, white flight slowed down as the rest of the Jewish population remained in the area. The only black gang was the Imperial Chaplains, however, it seems like they were not a gang banging since they never made the news back in these years.

In the spring of 1953 North Lawndale began to experience a crime wave as drug dealers and other criminals drifted into this neighborhood from the south side and Near West Side selling drugs or stealing so they could buy drugs to support their habits. The Italian Mafia flooded the south side streets with Heroin in later 1952 and as a result the effects of a drug addicted African American community showed up in the Near West Side, North Lawndale and the East and West Garfield Park streets.

By the year 1955, the crime wave had not stopped and it was infecting the black community of North Lawndale, this is when the black street gangs became more plentiful and violent. Egyptian Cobras and Imperial Chaplains were the biggest gangs and during this year several rebel groups splintered off from these groups to create their own gangs, thus, making this neighborhood flooded with gang activity. With the arrival of the drug trade, rise in crime, sprouting up of several different street gangs and gangs becoming bigger and more violent the Jewish community became fed up and began moving out in larger numbers starting in 1955.

The African American population was growing quite well as white flight was happening. One thing that helped white flight happen faster was “block busting” which was a method when a real estate agent hires “agents provocateurs,” which were impoverished African Americans that wanted to make a few bucks. After hiring the agents provocateurs, the real estate agent would go to the door step of a white family and persuade the family to sell their home at a rock bottom rate. The agent would have the family look out the window and see anything from a black woman pushing a stroller to a group of black youths fighting in the streets and making the white family terrified. The family had no idea they were being hustled by the real estate agent and they had no idea the rowdy blacks outside their window were hired agents provocateurs. The white family would become terrified and ask the agent how they could get out the soonest possible; the agent then said they can get them out fast as long as they were willing to sell their home for a certain amount to the real estate company. The family would be in such a state of panic they would agree to it real fast not giving themselves enough time to do any research. The agent would then help the family get into a new home outside of the city in the suburbs, sticking the family with a mortgage and the agent would profit big while the family would lose thousands in home equity from their Chicago home. The other part of the process was even more unethical and immoral as the agent would sell that same home to a black family that was desperate to escape from the poverty and crumbling conditions of Bronzeville, and the family was willing to pay a higher price to get the house.

Block busting and the closing of many businesses in the area dragged the neighborhood into a slum by the late 1950s with high crime and violence. This neighborhood became worse than the Near West Side and the south side ghettos, this was the new ghetto and was much worse, redlining and disinvestment became harsh realities that costed many jobs and cut off many loans to black residents.

In the year 1957 police Captain Thomas O’ Donnell had his officers in this district do a massive sweep of the black street gangs as police officers brutally attacked, shook down and arrested black youths whether they were in a gang or not. Some youths were innocent and others were hardly guilty; regardless, they were beaten robbed, burned with cigarettes and framed by Chicago police. Many of the youths ended up being sentenced to do time in the Illinois Reformatory For Boys in St. Charles, Illinois. In this facility a youth from North Lawndale named Edwin “Pepilo” Perry got together with six members of the Imperial Chaplains and started his own gang called the “Vice Lords” that were geared at angrily destroying the streets of North Lawndale in revenge for their mistreatment by police. In 1958 the boys were out and the Vice Lords started congregating at 21st and Lawndale and went crazy smashing on every other street gang brutally forcing them to flip to Vice Lords or face onslaughts of violence. The Vice Lords immediately expanded in North Lawndale and were immediately known by law enforcement as they absorbed one gang after another and they terrorized the North Lawndale community into the 1960s as the last of the white population moved out.

The last of the white population mainly lived on the east side of Douglas Park which was all blocks away from the only projects built in North Lawndale known as the Ogden Courts over by the intersection of Ogden Avenue and Washtenaw that were built in 1953 to 1954 in an attempt to contain the impoverished black community arriving in the neighborhood during the crime wave. Vice Lords soon occupied these buildings and caused trouble all around the buildings, this sparked the creation of the Satan Disciples street gang that was a gang of white and Mexican greasers from 15th and Tallman, just two blocks away from the projects.

The 1960s was a decade where North Lawndale fell deeper into a slum, the Vice Lords and other gangs destroyed the neighborhood in the wake of their vicious gang wars. In 1964 the older Vice Lords began attempting to organize themselves and stop destroying the community and this turned into them becoming “Conservative Vice Lords” and then creating “CVL Inc” by 1967. CVL Inc used government funding to repair the neighborhood and offer job training programs, youth halls and black owned businesses. The Martin Luther King riots of 1968 greatly destroyed much of the neighborhood; however, the Vice Lords tried to repair as much as possible.

By 1970 all funding was pulled from CVL Inc and the gang went back to being destructive and violent, they also heavily indulged in the drug trade, infecting the North Lawndale community with Heroin.

North Lawndale continued to deteriorate over the next few decades as bombed out abandoned buildings and homes became common sight and vacant lots lined the streets of this neighborhood. Junkies and vagrants walk the streets at night while prostitutes and drug dealers run the street corners. Gangs such as Vice Lords, New Breeds, Black Souls, Gangster Disciples and Four Corner Hustlers rule these streets and shoot each other dead over drug turf. Starting in the early 1970s black residents were beginning to move out in large numbers as many could no longer stand the crime and deterioration. As families continued to move out more and more shuttered properties and vacant lots became a common site.

I cannot say much positive about this neighborhood as it is one of Chicago’s worst and has been for a long time. Sure there has been some positivity and neighborhood repair; however, the decay and danger far outweighs the positive. This is perhaps the second most blighted neighborhood in Chicago right behind Englewood, as several buildings have been left abandoned for decades and every block has at least a few shuttered buildings or homes. This is still an active gang war zone and Vice Lords are still here and strong.

All images below are photos of abandoned properties. All images below are courtesy of Google Maps.

13th and Talman13th and Talman13th and Springfield13th and Springfield13th and Spaulding courtesy and Google13th and Sawyer13th and Sawyer courtesy of Google13th and Pulaski courtesy of Google13th and Lawndale13th and Lawndale13th and Lawndale13th and Lawndale13th and Lawndale13th and Kostner13th and Komensky13th and Komensky13th and Kolin courtesy of Google13th and Keeler13th and Keeler courtesy of Google13th and Keeler13th and Homan13th and Harding13th and Christiana13th and Christiana12th Place and St. Louis courtesy of Google12th Place and Homan12th Place and California19th and Lawndale19th and Lawndale19th and Komensky19th and Kedzie19th and Albany18th and Lawndale18th and Trumbull18th and St. Louis18th and Pulaski18th and Pulaski courtesy of Google18th and Pulaski18th and Pulaski18th and Pulaski18th and Lawndale18th and Komensky18th and Komensky18th and Komensky18th and Komensky18th and Homan18th and Drake18th and Central Park Ave before picture, 201118th and Central Park Ave after pic in 201518th and Avers16th and Tripp16th and St. Louis16th and St. Louis16th and Springfield16th and Spaulding16th and Sawyer courtesy of Google16th and Sawyer 16th and Ridgeway16th and Pulaski16th and Millard, fence is still there but no house16th and Millard courtesy of Google16th and Millard16th and Lawndale16th and Komensky16th and Komensky courtesy of Google16th and Kolin16th and Kolin courtesy of Google16th and Kolin16th and Keeler16th and Keeler16th and Kedzie16th and Kedzie courtesy of Google16th and Kedzie courtesy of Google16th and Kedzie 16th and Kedzie 16th and Kedzie 16th and Kedvale16th and Kedvale16th and Karlov courtesy of Google16th and Karlov courtesy of Google16th and Homan16th and Homan16th and Hamlin16th and Drake16th and Drake16th and Drake16th and Albany courtesy of Google15th Place and Kedzie15th Place and Kedzie courtesy of Google15th Place and Kedzie15th and Trumbull15th and Trumbull15th and Talman the original section of the Satan Disciples. Looks like they left a tribute tag there, courtesy of Google15th and St. Louis15th and Pulaski15th and Pulaski15th and Lawndale15th and Komensky15th and Komensky15th and Komensky15th and Keeler15th and Keeler15th and Keeler courtesy of Google15th and Kedzie15th and Kedzie15th and Kedvale courtesy of Google15th and Kedvale courtesy of Google15th and Kedvale courtesy of Google15th and Harding15th and Harding15th and Drake14th and Tripp14th and Springfield courtesy of Google14th and Kolin courtesy of Google14th and Keeler courtesy of Google14th and Kedvale courtesy of Google14th and Avers13th Place and Central Park Ave13th and TrippRoosevelt and FranciscoRoosevelt and FairfieldRoosevelt and AversCermak and PulaskiOgden and St. LouisOgden and SpauldingOgden and SawyerOgden and Sawyer courtesy of GoogleOgden and Sawyer courtesy of GoogleOgden and MillardOgden and MillardOgden and MillardOgden and LawndaleOgden and Central Park AveGrenshaw and KeelerView from Fairfield vacant factoryFilmore and RichmondFilmore and PulaskiFilmore and Pulaski courtesy of GoogleFilmore and MozartDouglas and TroyDouglas and Troy courtesy of GoogleDouglas and Sawyer courtesy of GoogleDouglas and HomanDouglas and Central Park AveDouglas and Central Park AveCullerton and PulaskiCermak and KildareCermak and KeelerCermak and KarlovRoosevelt and St. Louis courtesy of GoogleGrenshaw and St. LouisGrenshaw and St. Louis, homeless hang outRoosevelt and Washtenaw, vacant factoryRoosevelt and Washtenaw, vacant factoryRoosevelt and St. LouisRoosevelt and SpringfieldRoosevelt and Springfield courtesy of GoogleRoosevelt and Springfield courtesy of GoogleRoosevelt and Springfield Roosevelt and RichmondRoosevelt and KomeskyRoosevelt and KildareRoosevelt and KedvaleRoosevelt and KedvaleRoosevelt and Harding courtesy of GoogleRoosevelt and HardingRoosevelt and FranciscoRoosevelt and Francisco courtesy and Google

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Instead of searching one site after another to piece Chicago street gang history together, you can come to Chicago Gang History to see the research Zook has done to compile everything into one source. Keep reading…